Parent upset with school’s delayed threat notification

Portsmouth, Va. – A Portsmouth mother is angry after finding out about a threat against Woodrow Wilson High School almost two days after it was made.

The threats were made by a 10th grade student who posted pictures of guns on Facebook with threats to shoot up the school.

Portsmouth Police told NewsChannel 3 that the student had been arrested before noon on Wednesday.

The threat terrified Melissa Thompson, whose son is a junior. But Thompson didn’t get a message about the arrest from Principal Timothy Johnson until 5:00 p.m. Wednesday.

“We should have had the choice to come and get our children or not, and we didn`t have that choice. That`s not right because what if it would have went wrong, what if somebody else would have been involved that didn`t get arrested. It could have been horrible,” she says.

School officials say that the decision to call parents almost a day and a half after the threats were made came from the principal, who thought the best time to get a hold of parents was around dinnertime.

They also say they didn’t put the school on lock down because the guns were never physically there and the student was in custody.

“How can you not see somebody posting pictures of guns and threatening to shoot up the school not a real threat? Because it is,” Thompson says.

The threat still has Thompson shook up.

“I cried when I dropped him off. I tell him every day I love him. You never know. But, I hesitated. You know, it’s not worth it. Who’s to say something won’t happen today,” she says.

The student is currently being held at Chesapeake Detention Center until his hearing.